Abang Johari said teachers had already adapted to teaching without UPSR after it was abolished in 2021, Dayak Daily reported.

However, he expressed concern over the current assessment system, where students go from Year 6 to Form 5 without sitting for any major national examination, relying instead on pass-or-fail assessments.

He said this could affect students’ ability to develop writing and analytical skills in the long-term.

“When they enter the workforce later, they may not even know how to write an essay,” he was reported as saying at a town hall event in Kuching last night.

Education minister Fadhlina Sidek said previously the National Education Advisory Council had been tasked with studying whether UPSR and PT3 should be revived.

The UPSR, which assessed six years of primary education, was abolished in 2021, followed by PT3 for Form 3 students in 2022. Both were replaced by school-based assessments.

Sarawak introduced a standardised assessment (UL-DLP) for Year 6 pupils from 2025. The test gauges how well they learn Science and Mathematics in English under the Dual Language Programme.